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Clinton Gets Twitter Help From Colbert

He was Twitter ambushed, so to speak. Appearing in an interview with Stephen Colbert, the satirist and comedy show host urged the former president to hop on the Twitter bandwagon.

In fact, to make it easy on him, Colbert took the liberty of creating an account for Clinton.

“Now, (the Twitter name) President Clinton was taken. William Jefferson Clinton was taken. But PrezBillyJeff was available,” he said in the interview that aired Monday night on his program on Comedy Central.

Their exchange came during Saturday’s annual meeting for college students involved with the Clinton Global Initiative. Colbert interviewed Clinton on stage as a final segment for the conference.

“Would you like to break into the 21st century right now, and send your first tweet?” Colbert asked, sitting ready with a smart phone in hand. The audience erupted in cheers and applause.

A surprised, though slightly amused, Clinton reluctantly agreed to the pitch.

“You’ll type it?” Clinton asked.

“I’ll type it,” Colbert said. “140 characters or less.”

Pondering for a second, the former president decided on his first tweet.

“Just spent amazing time with Colbert,” Clinton said, sitting back in his chair with his face resting on his hand, seeming somewhat reticent.

Just spent amazing time with Colbert!Is he sane? He is cool! #cgiu

— Billy Jeff Clinton (@PrezBillyJeff) April 6, 2013

As of Tuesday morning around 8 a.m., the account had more than 32,000 followers. The one person he’s following is–surprise, surprise–Stephen Colbert.

His handle lacks the famous blue check mark sign, denoting the account as officially belonging to its namesake.

Since the airing of Monday night’s show, the account has posted three more tweets. Whether or not they came from the 42nd president is unclear, but it’s highly doubtful given the nature of the messages.